The Awakening as Told by the Boys (Zodiac Academy, #1.5)

by Caroline Peckham

I may not have known Roxy well, but she didn't seem like the kind of girl to melt into a puddle when I kissed her. No, she'd be all fire and spite and the kind of lust that burned the roof from houses while her fingernails gouged lines in my flesh.

This was her, this show of undeniable power which went on and on. She was a hurricane trapped in a jar and this was only the beginning of the storm. The longer I watched her, the clearer it became.

a shock of connection burning through my chest as her defiant green eyes met mine.

“Keep them,” she said dismissively, her eyes flicking over me like I was nothing more than an annoyance to her. “If you’re that desperate for material to jerk off to then be my guest.”

But she'd turned the tables on me again in an instant and somehow I was back on uneven footing, not knowing how best to strike at her.

pulling up the naked photos of Roxy at her initiation and deleting all of them with a hiss of irritation. I wouldn't be jerking off over some shitty photographs of a girl who drove me insane, and I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of believing I was either.

Darcy wrinkled her nose and my lips twitched up at the corner at how fucking cute she looked. Then I murdered that lip twitch and gritted my jaw,

Unlike normal Coercion, it couldn’t be fought off with mental shields or any spell I knew. It was as binding as a death vow and that made it terrifying. It took a soul sacrifice to achieve such high levels of dark magic. If your soul wasn’t intact when you died, it could forfeit your place among the stars, they could cast you into eternal damnation and suffering. And nothing that happened in this life was worth being cursed for eternity by our celestial rulers.

“What exactly are you and the Heirs planning to do them?” “Whatever it takes,” he growled. “Father’s been threatening Xavier again and I just…” I rested a hand on his shoulder, feeling his pain over that as it mixed with my own. “We’ll figure this out. I swear.”

“I think Darcy might be a Siren,” I said and his brows arched. “Oh yeah? Why do you think that?” he asked. “It’s just a vibe. Like she’s trying to manipulate my feelings or something,” I muttered and he nodded slowly. “Yeah now you say it, Roxy could be one too,” he said thoughtfully. “Really? You felt it from her as well?” I asked hopefully, latching onto this explanation with both hands. “Yeah, like a sort of pull...” “Exactly,” I agreed and relief fell between us.

Because if the FIB took him in, they’d find that hatchet, they’d use a Cyclops to search his memories. They’d see everything we’d been up to, and not just the Nymph hunts, they could see that I’d been teaching him dark magic too, that he was planning to take on his father. And I couldn’t let that happen.

“Because he made you be,” he sniped. “This is your Guardian bond speaking, not you.” “Fuck you,” I grunted, his words stinging more than I liked. “It’s not the bond.”

Because Darius was right, my choices were made for me when it came to his safety. And there was nothing I could do to fight it, even if it put the entire kingdom at risk.

Max cried out in horror that Seth’s dick had slapped him in the face.

"Put your dick away, dude, you're making this weird," I told him, flicking his nipple and making him yip in pain. "You know, every once in a while, you guys could all just get your dicks out instead of making me put mine away,"

Though the heavens only knew how I was ever supposed to get my cock hard for her.

Tory was a girl who I could want in all the ways my body was begging me to want her. Roxanya was a princess poised to destroy everything we were. Which was why I called her by that name because no matter how much my dick might have wanted me to, I couldn't let myself forget that for so much as a moment.

the first urge was followed by the second urge to head over to her bedroom right now and see if I could convince her to spend the night coming all over my cock before we had to go back to hating each other again. Bad idea.

"Oh please, I'm out of your league. No one would believe I was here to suck your cock," I taunted and he almost laughed for a moment before frowning again.

“If someone were to see you-” “I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to, sir,” I snapped, shoving his chest hard enough to make him stumble back a step so that he was forced to release me.

I'd long since given up any hope of him and Caleb putting their Orders aside and finding a way to be friends.

Lance sighed, moving closer so that he could place a hand on my shoulder and the animosity between us slipped away as the Guardian bond urged us together as always. Besides, I hated feeling angry with him. He was the one person in this world who truly knew me.

Well at least she had semi-decent taste in the company she kept. Though why she kept Polaris around, I’d never know. The way he looks at her…

Why did she unsettle me like that? She was just a girl. Even if she was a Vega. And her mouthy sister didn’t get me riled the way she did. No…it was something in the way she looked at me, like she could see beneath my hardened steely exterior that kept most other Fae out.

“The sun and the moon. They bind us.

Astrology had leaked into the Mortal Realm after Fae had conducted experiments there a long time ago, trying to work out if humans were affected by the stars too.

It was just blood. Really nice blood. Like bottle it and guard it forever blood. But not her blood.

And I had a chance to claim one of them as mine. The one who tormented my fucking soul.

Darcy Vega was my Source. Mine. And no one else in the whole damn kingdom could have a taste of her but me.

I wouldn’t stop looking. And if I looked, I’d move closer. And if I moved closer, I might bite her again. And if I bit her again, well….let’s just say I might have to start punching myself in the dick pre-bite in future. But I couldn’t just stare at my Atlas forever.

“One day, Professor, I'm going to be strong enough to fight you off,” she said, her voice ringing with power for a moment and making me pause. Oh fuck, why is that so hot?

“I know,” I said, enjoying this game. “But until that day, you're mine, Blue.” I swear she shivered a little at those words, but her eyes were a menacing wall that forced me out.

"Kneel," he commanded in a bored tone which claimed he took no pleasure in this, but I could see the truth in the depths of his dark eyes and I knew that wasn't the case at all.

Because his day was coming. He may have been enforcing his position above me for now but one day I would rise up out of his shadow and show him the monster he'd made in me.

He'd found my one weakness in my love for Xavier and he knew it.

"I won't heal myself or allow myself to be healed until dawn," I gritted out and magic flashed between our palms as the star bond was struck between us.

"Darius..." Lance's wild gaze met mine and I locked my jaw at the agony I found swimming in them. The bond between us meant that he had felt every strike of that belt against my flesh and even now I knew his instincts would be tearing him apart with the need to heal me.

"We will end him, Darius," he swore. "No matter what it costs us, we will see him fall."

There was a damn good reason why we tried not to do this too often and as my hand moved to the back of his hair to tug him closer to me and a sigh escaped my lips, I was forcibly reminded why.

"I think I should go before I start trying to dry hump you," he joked and I laughed pitifully, hating this fucking curse my father had put on us.

"Why couldn't you just be a girl?" I replied, shoving him out of my lap and raising my own fingers to heal the bite wound left on my neck. "Oh please, even if I was a girl I still wouldn’t let you fuck me."

I just wanted to see her, maybe even hear her call me an asshole.

while keeping my gaze riveted on the intoxicating creature who was looking at me with utter dislike in her green eyes.

What was going on beyond those big green eyes? What thoughts filled that pretty head of hers when she set her gaze on me?

And most definitely like I hadn’t been picturing her pinned beneath me every time I stroked my cock since the moment I’d laid eyes on her, thinking how slick and tight her pussy would feel wrapped around my length or how much I’d enjoy silencing that smart mouth of hers by fucking it roughly with my fist in that ebony hair.

“I didn’t realise you were so obsessed with me,”

A flicker of fear danced through her eyes for a moment and I stilled, not wanting her to look at me that way for some reason. Like I really was the monster my father had made me.

I didn't know any other woman who would dare speak to me the way she did and yet she didn't seem the least bit inclined to back down even though she could clearly tell what a dangerous game she was playing by baiting me.

I released her despite feeling the urge to tug her closer

preferring it when she bit at me, this vaguely pissed off acceptance wasn't giving me a look at the fire I liked so much in her. “How about you give me a fashion show wearing the contents of this box and I’ll let you keep your new wardrobe?”